Relativistic Astrophysics

Black holes, accretion disks, gravitational radiation, inflationary models of the Universe, and the cosmic microwave background, these are just some of the exciting topics covered in this wide-ranging review of the latest research in astrophysics. This volume represents the efforts of a distinguished team of experts and provides an invaluable entry point into relativistic astrophysics for graduate students, and a timely overview for researchers.

Based on a meeting to honour the pioneering work of Igor Novikov, this book presents nineteen chapters by a team of world-renowned experts. It provides researchers with a broad overview of modern relativistic astrophysics, and offers an ideal source of supplementary reading for graduate students in astrophysics, cosmology and physics.

A succinct yet engaging overview of what is today one of the most active and fruitful areas of research in physics.

Preface; Prologue: Conference overview Bernard Carr; Part I. The Universe At Large and Very Large Redshifts: 2. The size and age of the Universe Gustav A. Tammann; 3. Active galaxies at large redshifts Malcolm S. Longair; 4. Observational cosmology with the cosmic microwave background George F. Smoot; 5. Future prospects in measuring the CMB power spectrum Philip M. Lubin; 6. Inflationary cosmology Michael S. Turner; 7. The signature of the Universe Bernard J. T. Jones; 8. Theory of large-scale structure Sergei F. Shandarin; 9. The origin of matter in the universe Lev A. Kofman; 10. New guises for cold-dark matter suspects Edward W. Kolb; Part II. Physics and Astrophysics Of Relativistic Compact Objects: 11. On the unification of gravitational and inertial forces Donald Lynden-Bell; 12. Internal structure of astrophysical black holes Werner Israel; 13. Black hole entropy: external facade and internal reality Valery Frolov; 14. Accretion disks around black holes Marek A. Abramowicz; 15. Black hole X-ray transients J. Craig Wheeler; 16. X-rays and gamma rays from active galactic nuclei Roland Svensson; 17. Gamma-ray bursts: a challenge to relativistic astrophysics Martin Rees; 18. Probing black holes and other exotic objects with gravitational waves Kip Thorne; Epilogue: the past and future of relativistic astrophysics Igor D. Novikov; I. D. Novikov's scientific papers and books.